Fantasy Hockey Scouts: Daily Dosage - Sept 28th, 2009

We updated the FSR & 2009/10 Projected Stats on September 23rd and we'll do another update on the 30th... don't you think it's about time you got the freshest produce available? Or maybe you're the type of GM who's happy with his glossy magazine that was written in early July?  Check out the FSR page for details.

Daily Diarrhea  

Uber prospect Matt Duchene has officially made the Avs.  The team now has nine games to decide whether to keep him or return him to junior so don't go running to your waiver wire just yet.  Although, if you're in a keeper league or have a free roster spot, he's a great add but we don't think you should expect more than 40 points this season.  It looks like the Avs 2nd round pick from this summer's draft, Ryan O'Reilly, has made the opening night roster as well... O'Reilly's more of a heart-and-soul player than a scorer, so don't expect much production if he sticks past the nine game mark.

Same deal in Atlanta, as Evander Kane should be getting at least nine games with the Thrashers, probably on the third line.  We seeing him going back down to junior after the nine games... but you never know. 

Flyers GM Paul Holmgren stated that "if" James Van Riemsdyk makes the team, he would need to play on a top line because he needs to play big minutes.  JVR looks to be one of the better breakout candidates this year, especially if he get those big minutes Holmgren was talking about.  Keep an eye on this kid and kudos to you if you already own him. [more]

After Jonas Gustavsson looked great against Detroit on Saturday night, Vesa Toskala did his best Vesa Toskala impersonation on Sunday night... stopping only 17 of 24 shots.  What's the over/under till The Monster is #1?  One week?  One month?

Uh oh... Pekka Rinne hasn't looked very sharp this pre-season and now Dan Ellis goes and stops 36 of 38 shots last night.  It's only the pre-season so Rinne is still the #1 guy, but if you have a open roster spot grabbing Ellis wouldn't be a bad idea (especially for Rinne owners).

Lots of note-worthy cuts yesterday and there will be plenty more today...

• Carolina cut Jamie McBain, he's a victim of the numbers game but should see some NHL action this year and could be a good one.

• Toronto sent Nazem Kadri back to junior (smart), Christian Hanson to the AHL (deserved) and will release Jason Allison from his try-out (thank god).  Tyler Bozak is still with the club but is expected to be sent to the AHL soon (too bad) and this means that Viktor Stalberg is on the team (he better be after 6+3=9 in eight pre-season games). 

• Edmonton sent Jordan Eberle back to the WHL after he couldn't find the scoresheet in four pre-season games (he'll light it up in junior this year) and cut Robbie Schremp... he'll have to clear waivers to go to the AHL and it sounds like someone will grab him, so he should start the year in the NHL.

• The Habs have sent Sergei Kostitsyn to the AHL... we're big on this kid's talent so this is a major shot to the heart for us... hopefully he'll be back up soon.

• Evgeny Grachev got his first goal of the pre-season yesterday but then was sent down to the AHL by the Rangers... but the kid was damn close to making the team and should be taken early in every league's prospect draft. 

• Brett MacLean hung around the Coyotes camp for a while but will go back to the AHL after not registering a point in three pre-season games... he's got talent but he's got a lot more to prove in the AHL before we're sold.

• The Red Wings sent Jakub Kindl to the AHL, as expected... he's on a two-way deal this year that becomes a one-way deal next year... so he'll be in the NHL to stay, starting next season.

Injury Updates (see our Injury Updates page for a consolidated list of injuries):

Brian Boucher is out 7 to 10 days thanks to the ol' lower body injury... most likely a groin tweak.  Johan Backlund gets the call-up to sit on the bench for a week hoping for a Ray Emery explosion. 

Speaking of groins... Ed Jovanovski's is sore.  He is expected to be ready to start the season, but just be prepared that this is all part of the deal with the Jovo-Cop... stock up on tums.

Kari Lehtonen and his sore back should be out of action for at least three weeks.  Hopefully you picked up a copy of our FSR and listened to our advice to stay away from Lehtonen.  The 22-year old Ondrej Pavelec gets the nod and is expected to start the season opener. 

Kris Versteeg is questionable for Friday's season opener against the Panthers in Finland.  If you have a better option you might want to sit down Versteeg for this short scoring period.

Daily Distraction 

What's distracting us today?  We saw this commercial for Pepsi... which made us sad:

Do we really need help from a mega-corporation creating a new cheer?  What's wrong with the old Go Canada Go?

According to Pepsi, the early leader is: "Canada...the Choice of A New Generation"...not very catchy, if you ask us.

Alright that kinda sucked, but it was a slow day out there.  So in order to try to make it up to you, we have an older AHL video staring Mika Noronen from god knows when:

Alright that was a slight improvement but we think we can still do better... how about Joe Thornton as a Ventriloquist? (Stick Tap to our buddy Stoeten at theScore.com blog)

Oh yeah... that'll do.